One of my first memories in our house, about 7 years ago now, is sitting at the dinning room table and thinking the fridge was about to explode. It was loud and rattly and given that the previous owners never seemed to use the right tool to fix the job, I assumed it was just going to die any day.
We did eventually get someone in to look at it and learned that we could get the seal on the door to be much better if we gave it a once over with a hair dryer. He also got it quieter. Given that the fridge was quieter and that neither of us owned a hair drier, we filed that away as a "thing we should do" and went on with our lives — with the regular urge to really squeeze the fridge door shut (sorry if we're visiting).
Time went on, as time does, and eventually the fridge got noisier and nosier. I'm not always the best at getting chores done and so despite having some idea that I aught to "clean the compressor coils" from time to time, I didn't and slowly the fridge arrived back at a level of loudness where we couldn't ignore it any farther.
So I searched, to find out how to make your fridge quieter and "clean your compressor coils" was the largest answer. I was able to figure out roughly what the model of my fridge was and that the coils are in the bottom at the back.
I unplugged the fridge, pulled it out found the ... cardboard that was screwed to the back (I'm not sure if that's Mr. Wrong-tools at work or just some old fashioned enshitification in fridge design), unscrewed it and found, a fair bit of dust. I cleaned it out. Screwed the panel ... cardboard ... back on, plugged the fridge back in and the fridge got quieter.
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| Yes, this does need cleaning. |
Hooray!
Then the fridge got louder. A lot louder. It was hard to talk to each other in the kitchen if the fridge was running louder and the fridge was always running.
Back to Google and ... compressor coils, compressor coils, and then one entry on evaporator coils, which are in the freezer. They can get ice on them (and the fan can get ice on it) which can be *really loud* and sound like it's coming from the freezer.
That of course make sense. I do actually know how heat systems work (thanks Technology Connections) and of course you need compression on the one side and evaporation on the other. I just took the consumer electronics at their face value and went, well that's a smooth panel, nothing to be done there.
But that's a lie. And it's a lie google reinforces. When I search for how to clean your evaporator coils Google (and YouTube) will *only* return pages about compressor coils. So I knew I had to deice (and maybe clean) the evaporator coils, but unlike the compressor coils I couldn't find a video.
So, we went and bought a hair-drier, a thing neither my partner nor I have ever done. Fortunately if you only want it for "Hot Air" purposes the drugstore hair-drier isle is fairly manageable and so we found one that's pretty good for hot and air without too many weird marketing words attached. (Ours is still double ceramic... we're not barbarians...).
Unplugged the fridge, emptied the freezer into bins and covered with blankets, and there was the back.
Discovery one, serviceable screws (and the same size as the ones on the back.)
Discovery two, temperature control, set the absolute maximum (we probably should have looked at this like 7 years earlier).
Discovery 3, the rack in the freezer is held in place with a little rubber stopper. Immovable. Until you heat it up with a hair-drier and then you can pop it right off and lift the rack out.
I unscrewed the panel on the back and carefully — there were wires from the control and the fan — moved the panel out of the way. There were the evaporator coils and the fan, covered in ice. (Also a hose clamp covered in spray foam, doing ... something, but that's Mr. Wrong-tools' calling card, so I know he was in here at some point.)
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| So there it is, slightly moist now I think I was mostly through melting when I took this. |
I went to town with the hair-drier. I put a couple of towels in and there was also a drain (which I think goes back down where the condenser coil is) and all of the ice melted out. I got the fan running freely when I blew air on it. Nothing exploded or released any gas, so I guess Mr. Wrong-tools at least got a seal with his clamp, and things seemed pretty good.
I got the panel seated again, screwed everything back together put everything back and lo-and-behold the fridge ran almost silently. Also it ran way less frequently.
It seems like, when I unplugged it to clean the compressor coils, the ice partially melted and then refroze (especially on the fan) which is what made the fridge so loud.
So, that's what I learned about my fridge. And if your fridge is loud and you can't figure out why, then ignore Google and take a look at your evaporator coils — if you can (enshitification of fridges continues I'm sure). Be gentle with the fins, they're really thin. As far as I can see if your freezer is self-defrosting and not very prone to making noise you may never need to do this, but if it comes up it might be worth trying to clean it up.
Now our fridge runs quietly and not that often and peace mostly rules our house again. Although we will still squeeze the hell out of a fridge door if given the chance.
As a bonus I was able to turn the freezer down to a much more believable level and now we don't freeze thing if we put them too near the top of the fridge.
